Never fear, river beer is crystal clear

Judges to taste brewers' concoctions made from former sewage effluent

Portland-area beer drinkers rarely bat an eye at the unorthodox flavors dreamed up by local home brewers.

Chocolate Stout? Order up.

Fruit beer? A whole festival is devoted to them.

Theres even coffee beer and Voodoo Doughnut beer.

The Oregon Brew Crew (OBC), the states oldest and largest home-brewing club, with 250 members, thought their brewers had seen and sipped it all.

Then in July, the club was approached by Mark Poling of Hillsboro-based Clean Water Services and asked whether members would make beer out of Tualatin River water  specifically, water just downstream from a giant sewage treatment plant.

Yep. Former-sewage beer.

Clean Water Services (CWS), a semi-governmental utility that handles wastewater, stormwater and other water-management services for all Washington County cities, proposed a beer competition in order to demonstrate the purity of its processed water.

More marketably dubbed Pure Water Brew by Carollo Engineers  a California-based environmental-engineering firm and the contest sponsor  the 16 beer styles will be tasted Saturday, Sept. 6, by a panel of judges that includes Verboort resident Andy Duyck, who also chairs the Washington County Commission and the CWS board of directors.

The top four brewers will receive $100 each and a Best of Show winner will receive an additional $50. All four beers will be sent to a national clean-water conference in New Orleans.

Its a great way to show that former sewer water is clean, said Art Larrance, the godfather of home brewing in Oregon and a CWS board member who used his connections to get the Pure Water Brew project off the ground.

We have a worldwide water shortage and home brewing can be part of the solution, Larrance said.

Brewers embrace concept

What did the brewers  with their discerning palates and water puritanism  think of using purified sewage effluent?

My reaction was sheer excitement to try something completely different that no home-brewing club in the country had an opportunity to try, said Jason Barker, a Hillsboro home brewer and education chairman for OBC.

Beer is safer to drink than water because its boiled during the making process, killing any harmful organisms, he added.

That may sound less than reassuring to potential drinkers of river beer, as the brewers themselves call it, but this water has plenty of safeguards.

We wanted to take it directly out of the treatment plant because we produce this effluent that very nearly meets Safe Drinking Water Act standards, said Mark Jockers, CWS manager of government and public affairs.

But regulations from Oregons Department of Environmental Quality complicated that plan, he said.

So instead, CWS drew the river beer water from an area near Tualatin Community Park, immediately downstream from CWSs Durham treatment plant. At that point, the cleaned effluent accounts for 30 percent of the rivers water, Jockers said.

To meet DEQs strict regulations, CWS then ran the water through a special, experimental high-purity system at its Fernhill Road site in Forest Grove.

The result exceeded drinking-water standards, Jockers said.

None of the brewers balked.

We dont need a reason to brew another batch of beer, said Barker, one of 13 brewers who took on the challenge.

Barker is brewing a lager called California Common, also known as steam beer. Its amber, with Northern Brewer hops that have what he describes as a woody, minty characteristic.

Barker said hes ultra-confident in my chances of winning one of the prizes because Ive made this beer so many times in the past and won several competitions. The only difference is the water.

Personal best

Jeremie Landers, a home-brewer from the Kenton neighborhood of North Portland, usually uses Bull Run water for his batches of beer.

Bull Run water has naturally occurring salts, explained Landers, who has been making his own beer since 2006.

When I tasted this water, it was different. Very plain. I saw it as a blank slate. He added Epsom salts, calcium carbonates and gypsum, among other natural minerals and ingredients.

Landers had never made a German Pilsner before and thought the water would suit that style well.

I went to Bolt Minister  thats his real name  of Old Town Brewing and asked him for suggestions. He didnt give me a recipe, but I think what Ive achieved mimics German Pils, with a beautiful golden color.

Landers is clearly proud of his creation. I think my chances are very good, he said.

However, he says the biggest prize for his German Pils would be to have Bolt like it and to see the water source himself.

I hope I dont win, so I can drink it myself.

The project seems to have gained fans from all corners.

We are geeked-out at the chance to make beer from something no one else has, said Barker. To have the winners represent Oregon at a gala event in New Orleans is any home brewers dream.

Were proud of Portland and Oregon in general and love the friendly rivalry we have with other cities that claim they are more beer-centric, like Asheville, N.C.

Jockers wants to see the super-purified water continue breaking through boundaries and boldly going where no former sewage effluent has gone before.

You could use it for anything, he said, toying with the idea of a tea competition next year.